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Monday, January 30, 2017

Who would have thought finding Japanese field guns for the Russo-Japanese war in 15mm would be so difficult!!?

First, this gun looks very different than most artillery as the barrel is slung very low in comparison to other contemporary artillery. See photos below:

Since I purchased my initial collection from Mal Wright, and he had some artillery labeled as Arisaka 7cm in the collection, I thought that was the field gun until I found the photos above. The one is the collection looks like mountain gun and that is what I'm going to use it for.

Mal actually sculpted guns for the REALLY USEFUL GUN range (RUG) that Irregular Miniatures currently supplies, however the code that I would have thought match the Arisaka Field gun didn't!!

So, Ian Kay (owner of Irreguler), Mal and I worked out which gun from the range really was the correct gun for the Japanese! We finally found it and here is a photo listed as RUG 42 in the catalog which isn't correct:

Many, many thanks to Ian for being soooo helpful. Now, to field a standard artillery regiment for a Division I need 12 models. Since I needed guns for 2 divisions, I ordered 24 guns, with 2 crew each. I'm currently assembling the guns in 1/2 regiment increments (3 batteries), to be painted and based.

From the HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF THE RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR, page 40, this is the information about the gun:

The actual name is ARISAKA TYPE 31 GUN, 75mm caliber, designed by Colonel Arisaka Nariakira and came into service in 1902. The mountain gun version is nearly identical with just a shorter barrel, same caliber and ammunition.

So the only company that makes the correct version of the Japanese Arisaka 75mm gun for the Russo-Japanese war is Irregular miniatures. Old Glory 15s has a model that is close, but I'm pretty anal retentive so I went with the RUGs!

Next up, will be getting these bad boys painted (a whole other problem as I'm not quite sure the color schemes used) and how to adjust their capabilities versus Russian artillery capabilities of the war. For example, Russian only had shrapnel and no high explosives (great against entrenchments and walled villages), however the Japanese did have HE.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

For my RJW project I'm basing my Japanese collection around the Japanese1st Army commanded by General Baron Kuroki.

The reason I'm picking this army is most Japanese armies during the war had 2 or more divisions. However, the 1st Army also has the Japanese Imperial Guard or Guard division attached to it, plus the two standard divisions of a normal army. Also, the Japanese from the collection I bought were based on that army, so it makes sense to continue the progress made by Mal when he made this collection.

The 1st Army had 3 divisions, and I plan on fully collecting the Imperial Guard Division and 2nd Division, then add units to the 12th Division as I can. So, even if I fight another battle that had a different Japanese army, I can use the Imperial Guard as a proxy for the second division of the other army and 2nd as a standard division. The uniforms are different between the 2nd Division and Imperial Guard, but nobody will really complain if I use Imperial Guard as regulars.

Imperial Guard Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Hasegawa

2nd Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Nishi

12th Division: commanded by Lieutenant General Inouye

To put some faces to the names, here is a great photo of these three generals. (click for larger image)

Sunday, January 8, 2017

I haven't played Maria, but have played Frederick by the same company. Maria is a 3 player game with our games only including the basic rules and the Bohemian map.

Steven H was the French\Bavarian alliance.
Steven M was the Austrias (fair Maria)
I was Frederick the Great

Maria in her younger days

We played two games with me taking the first one by victory locations (Maria and her generals were off killing French, while I snuck in behind her and gathered 12 fortresses.

The second game we all had a better handle on the game and I was able to attack two Austrian armies who were in diamonds, while my 4 armies were in 3 different suites and included the Saxon army (which was destroyed in the process of burning through Maria's diamonds). Here is a photo of me before delivering the killing blow to Maria and her white clad army.

I've been looking forward to a game day of C&C Ancients for years so Phil and I picked our top 5 battles from the Rome vs Barbarian expansion and began playing them on Tuesday morning around 10am. We played until about 3:30pm and we were able to finish five games in that timeframe (+ lunch).

Here is a chart of the games we played, along with the victory banner count and winner. "R-EB8" means Romans played by Eric with 8 victory banners.

C&C
Ancients – Expansion #2 – Rome vs Barbarians

Battle

Date

Army

Army

Victor

Winner

Loser

Notes

Clusium

225
BC

Roman

Gauls

Gauls

R-EB8

G-PG0

Average

Aquae
Sextiae

102
BC

Roman

German
Tribes

Roman

R-EB6

G-PG2

Average

River
Sabis

57
BC

Roman

Belgic
Tribes

Roman

R-EB8

B-PG5

Excellent

Sotium

56
BC

Roman

Gauls

Roman

R-PG6

G-EB0

Poor

Invasion
Britain

55
BC

Roman

Britons

Roman

River
Stour

54
BC

Roman

Britons

Roman

B-EB6

R-PG1

Excellent – Chariots!

Some photos of the games. I really had fun when I got to play with all those Barbarian Light Chariots!

Steven M. and I played this game Wednesday morning and afternoon. I've never played this game before and was so busy with the game I forgot to take photos. This is a cool game! I love the period flavor with the blocks, clan symbols, and combat mechanism. Fairly unique with tons of replayability.

Wednesday Night - ACW Sharp Practice (miniatures)

Robert kindly ran an ACW skirmish game set in 1863 with the Yanks attacking the rear guard of the Confederate army. None of us had played this rules (except Robert) so there was a little bit of a learning curve, however we all enjoyed the game. Robert's figures are nicely painted and the sabot bases are great for moving the individually mounted figures.

That is Paul explaining to Phil how his Yankees were going to sweep in an destroy the Confederate lines. In the end, the Confederates successfully delayed the Yankees enough to keep the Army of
Northern Virginia safe and intact.

Thursday Day - Russo-Japanese War

Phil and I play tested a RJW game called "Bear Burned by the Sun" by Brian Asklev. This is a block game in the Fog of War series by Academy Games. Only Strike of the Eagle has been published in this series, but I have play tested several more games in addition to this Russo-Japanese land campaign.

First, I love the Fog of War game mechanics: card driven, with unit orders, and no dice. I love the card play interaction with the combat mechanics. The order system really allows you to bluff and apply strategic thinking to your game.

Some photos from our two games, which turned out to be very close. These are all playtest graphics, and I made the block labels. I also have 15mm Japanese army for the period and have them on the table holding the playtest map down. Below is the Japan holding box, with Japanese infantry divisions and brigades awaiting transport to the Chinese mainland.

The first game was the introductory scenario that lasts 2 operations + the Replacement phase, which allowed Phil, who has never played a Fog of War game, to get a better grasp of the rules. This was a minor Japanese victory, and played in about 1.5 hours.

Monday December 26th - Game of Thrones

I had the pleasure of meeting some new gamers down at the Carolina Table Top hobby store in Pineville, NC (about 15 minutes away) and we played Game of Thrones. I had never played the game before, but certainly love the HBO series.

I was stuck with the Greyjoys, which appears to be one of the weaker factions, but the game is serious fun and there can be only one victor!

Mike, Ben, Peter, Wes, Steve (The Hammer), and I played this beautiful game.

We had a joke as Eddard Stark kept getting "assassinated" (card removed) by the Barathians nearly every turn after the Starks reshuffled their deck. Not sure Ben (Eddard) was too happy about it.

Victory face or constipation? You be the judge!

We managed to play 10 turns (entire game), without someone triggering sudden victory. In the end, my Greyjoys prevailed! Unbelievable. It came down to several tie breakers: total castles, total strongholds, total supply, and finally Power tokens. I had more power tokens than Mike!

So, that was my week of gaming adventure! Completely awesome time with great friends and I can't wait to get back to our weekly gaming sessions.

I hope all of you had a GREAT New Year's and I hope you enjoy good times and good health in 2017!!

We've been doing a lot of board gaming here at the Charlotte Garrison, but I also wanted to focus on one miniature collection this year, and I have decided on the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905.

Why in the world would I do that?!?!

There are several reasons I want to focus on this period and here some of them.

I have a massive 15mm collection I bought from Mal Wright about 10 years ago, and I've only managed to put these figures on the table once! Travesty!!!

I want to work on my battalion scale rules for BARRAGE (Piquet Supplement for early 20th century wargaming).

I have several first hand accounts and maps from the "Reports of Military Observers attached to the Armies in Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War" (RMO from now on) published just after the war in 1906. These contain stunning drawings and maps of all major and minor battles, fortifications, equipment, tactics, etc. Just a gem of a resource. This appears to be in re-print now, but I don't think they include the fold out maps.

The uniforms are cool, with lots of unit variety, and this represents one of the first glimpses into what war would look like over the coming decades.

I'm helping to playtest a RJW strategic level block game and I'm fired up about that too.

First up will be me re-painting and flocking of the Japanese 2nd Division, which was part of the Japanese 1st Army. I also have the Guards Division from the 1st Army halfway completed.

The above is what I would need to be able to field this wargaming Division on the table. One of the challenges will be to find 15mm Japanese 7cm Arisaki Field Guns as they are very unique looking. More on that in another post.

The infantry Regiment was made up of 3 battalions, with 4 companies each. Each company had 3 zugs (platoons), which had 5 subsections (squads). Each company had 5 officers, 30 non-commissioned officers, and 200 privates (paper strength). [Page 7, Part III, RMO]

Here is a nice photo from my RMO book, part 1, which shows the composition of the 2nd Division. Mal did make a telegraph company so that has to get on the table at some point!

About the Dictator

Benevolent Dictator of the Charlotte Garrison wargaming club and chieftan of the Burgess Clan.
EMAIL: EBurgess@Carolina.rr.com
Wargaming with miniatures (and rules) since about 1989. Playing with toy soldiers since 1970.
Miniature Wargame Rules Written by me: Guns of Liberty (AWI), Barrage (Piquet), Archon 2nd edition (Piquet), Din of Battle 2nd edition (Piquet), and Death in the Desert (FFL)